


Nocturne

by DoubleDimension



Series: Supergirl Background Stories [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Gen, Implied Glee, Musical Kara, Pianist Kara, piano music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 05:15:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10712952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoubleDimension/pseuds/DoubleDimension
Summary: Music served an important purpose to her. It was something to get lost into without the burden of the world on her shoulders. She could forget her human alter-ego, she could ignore her superhero pseudonym and just be herself. It made her human yet connected her to her roots. It made the world feel just right.《小夜曲》的英文版。





	Nocturne

She had always been a curious child, she had wanted to know everything, despite her father insisting that it was impossible, saying, “Only Rao knew everything, as he created it.” It was a thing she never grew out of.

When she arrived on Earth, she was fascinated by everything, who wouldn’t be if they were plunged into a world of almost everything to discover. One of the first things she came across were that Earth’s music was nothing like Krypton’s, after all there was a huge cultural divide.

On Earth, she first tried out the guitar, thinking that a stringed instrument much like a similar one which she played on Krypton would be inside her comfort zone, but her newly trimmed fingernails were like saws and she broke the it within seconds of plucking a G-string.

She had tried the flute, but unfortunately underestimated the strength of her own freeze-breath and froze the entire instrument to the point that the metal was cold enough to be brittle under her touch.

Then there was the piano, by then she had already learnt to read Earth’s rather rudimentary but still logical and manageable music notation method. It was the same instrument that Alex had learnt and seemed like a good decision at the time, since they already had the instrument at home. So Eliza signed her up for lessons with the same teacher who taught Alex.

First, she learnt scales, from the basic C major, to the slightly harder G and F majors. The thing about major scales, she noticed was that the tone was mainly happier, chippier, much like the birds she was so fascinated by, flying freely in the air. Then she learnt the minor scales, both harmonic and melodic, and in a way they represented a darker, underlying sadness to the music.

There were those times when she was a teenage and couldn't sleep, shaken awake by nightmares of Krypton, and she would carefully close the door to her room, slowly float down the stairs to reduce noise and play on the piano in the living room.

She would play whatever was on her mind, that usually ranged from the latest pop song that she heard on the radio to the music piece that her teacher assigned her that week.

She remembered once, she was probably in high school, and she just had a really crappy day in general. It was one of the few days after Jeremiah died, and her mood was down, she couldn't concentrate on anything.

Hell, she couldn't even keep her powers in control! The only thing keeping her anchored were the lead lined glasses which stopped her from seeing through walls, but her hearing was exploding, and she could hear everything. Literally everything for miles, and in a way, if gave her migranes.

She picked up her bag after lunch and ran, that’s when she found the music room with the piano, and she headed inside. She enjoyed the relative silence from the semi-soundproofed room and sat at the enormous instrument.

She cracked her knuckles and placed her fingers over the keyboard, feeling the smooth, weighted keys and pressed one of them. Then, naturally, the music came to her, her fingers began to dance gracefully over the black and white, and a tune emerged.

She began lost in it, the music began to take over her soul as she the tune began to evolve into a full-fledged song. She closed her eyes and sank into the deep waters of music.

Slowly, the only thing she heard became the music she was playing, and she gradually took control over her actions. Though she didn’t have an ounce of control over the tears that ran down her cheeks.

She also remembered that somehow, Alex had found her in that state. She would never live that down. Definitely.

After college, she started to work at CatCo and made her first friend at work in Winn. She invited him over for a game night. It took quite some convincing, as it was only the two of them and it felt quite awkward since they weren’t dating.

So Winn followed her home after work. They took some takeout home on the way back to her apartment.

“Your place looks really nice, really homey,” she remembered Winn gush over her furniture, and that she somehow had a really tasteful eye. They played a round of monopoly, but it got boring because of the lack of people, they didn’t even finish it before moving off to Kara’s Wii Set and began a game of Mario Kart. That got quite heated, then she remembered, Winn’s geeky competitiveness and her Kryptonian reflexes don’t match.

After the game, just as they took out the food to eat and that’s when Winn noticed her digital piano in the corner. It was black, shiny and well-kept. He piped up, pointing at it excitedly, “You play?”

Nodding sheepishly as it was more of a comfort device (and guilty pleasure, she would never admit it), she walked over to the instrument, and lifted the lid, turning on the power. “You’d probably like this, you huge geek.”

That’s when once more, her fingers began to fly over the keyboard and she began lost in the music she was playing. The only thing she could imagine was the melody and the way it really felt as if she were drifting through space. She knew that by experience. It was the comforting type of drifting through space, like when she and her parents had travelled to Starhaven on vacation.

Her left hand played repetitive notes as the right one moved gracefully, crescendo-ing and diminuendo-ing  in the right places, going from single notes to chords in the switch of a millisecond.  But it felt right.

The song ended gradually on a long semibreve. Then she lifted her hands off the ivory-looking keys.

She stood up and met with Winn’s stunned looking face. She quickly glanced away, “Sorry, that along with the song choice, super inappropriate. I mean we don’t know each other for more than a month.”

Winn laughed, “You’re really good, Kara, you should really play more.”

She smiled and the incident seemed to be forgotten for a while.

That was until she had to arrange for the CatCo Annual Christmas Dinner a year and a half later. Ms Grant had wanted it to be at the CatCo Tower Event Hall near the top of the building.

Secretly, she loved that place, and since it was rarely used, would go up there to admire National City’s view when there were too many people on the balcony of her floor. The modernist architecture with glass windows also reminded her of her room in Argo City.

She walked through the chamber, made notes on the decorations, and check whether the sound systems were ready for the live band they were borrowing from CatCo Recording Studios.

But at the last minute, literally just two hours before the start of the party, the live band cancelled on her, telling her of a winter bug. Not that it was contagious to her. But that meant she had to find some way to get a replacement, and it was nearly impossible.

She at first thought of putting together a playlist for the night on her Spotify account and play it, but Ms Grant was adamant on the live music part.

She called to James and Winn for help, and the latter looked at her like she was an idiot.

“There is a piano right? Why don't you play. And I've heard you at karaoke, don't deny it.”

Her face reddened the same shade as the Santa hats she ordered for the party. So in a way she reacted when she was nervous, she retorted with a sassy remark, “Well, you also sing, I remember you doing it in shower when you came over to my place because of a power outage.”

Then it was Winn’s turn to turn redden while James started to laugh.

Later that evening, everyone was dressed in fancy dresses and suit-and-tie attire, Santa hats were handed out to all the guests, and she finished her duties with Ms Grant, who actually told her to enjoy the festivities with a, “Christmas comes but once a year.”

She took her seat in front of the black and white keys, smoothed out the folds in her royal blue dress and raised her hands to the keys and played.

A familiar jingle from a familiar Christmas carol emerged, then a second one, by the third song, people began to sing along, and she began humming herself. Winn had joined her at the microphone and began a rendition of WHAM's Last Christmas. Slowly, the modern songs began to lead the way into something more traditional like Silent Night. After a few more classics like Joy to the World and The First Noel, Kara began to run out of song, and Winn had gone _somewhere_.

She then improvised and began playing different notes, slowly she began with a few pieces she had practiced long ago, and her fingers began to resemble the old pieces she had played. They flew over the keys, transitioning from the allegro notes in the beginning to the more legato and adagio ones later on.

She felt a need for a drink and walked away from the instrument, leaving it for someone else when she finished that piece.

She remembered Ms Grant walking up to her, saying to her “Not as uncultured as I thought. Frederic Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu, good choice.”

Slowly, she began to fit into her role as both her role as a civilian and as Supergirl with both the help of the Department of Extranormal Operations and her friends and family found in Alex, Eliza, J’onn, Winn and James.

Then there was Mon-El the Daxamite, he was such an obnoxious, annoying frat-boy like person in the beginning. There was also the Montague and Capulet like relationship between both Daxam and Krypton. But like most other people, she grew to like him, he could be quite charming at times. And they started dating.

Both of them spent a lot of time over at her apartment, and one evening, after a dinner of not-so-fancy Chinese takeout, they began a conversation on music on Earth.

Apparently, Winn had introduced him to rap which was all over the radio and he complained that there was no variety in Earth music.

She then laughed and proceeded to show Mon-El her CD collection which showcased her music preferences from before she had a Spotify account, and browsed YouTube for her music preferences. Mostly from the noughties.

She wasn’t _that_ shy about her teenage boyband obsession, she _was_ the awkward alien assimilating to a different planet’s culture after all.

But she didn’t just have 2008’s Greatest Hits album, there were also some classical music ones, and it was a disaster as Mon-El tried to pronounce the title, “Beet-hoven Pie-yah-no Soh-nae-tae”

She grabbed the disc from him, and said, “It’s Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Number 8 in C Minor Op. 13, otherwise known as the Pathetique Sonata.” then she placed it back on its shelf.

That led to her sitting at her piano once again, playing the familiar chords, and it somehow led to her singing.

It was soft, melodic tune, quite repetitive but it felt right. The atmosphere and the time it just fell into place perfectly.

Her hands danced across the keyboard gracefully and her mouth opened to an angelic voice.

“Heart beats fast

Colours and promises

How to be brave?

How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?...’

Apparently Mon-El had heard of this song and hummed along, tapping his foot as he harmonized beside her.

Then by the next verse, he joined in, singing

“Time stands still

Beauty in all she is

I will be brave

I will not let anything take away

What's standing in front of me

Every breath

Every hour has come to this…”

The two of them joined in harmony, and finished off as she continued the easy chords and triads on her hands, the cliche, slightly sappy lyrics fitting in with the setting.

“And all along I believed I would find you

Time has brought your heart to me

I have loved you for a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more.”

Mon-El was the first to react, he sat down on the piano stool beside her, took her hands as she lifted them off the keyboard, he half-whispered softly, “That was ethereal.”

He leaned in closer and their arms wrapped around each other, and enjoyed each other in the warm embrace.

Then, the door opened to a jingle of keys, “Kara, I have potstickers and pizza! Wait, I heard singing, was it you? You’d better… Yeesh! I did not need to see that! Cut the PDA!”

Her sister was at the door with a pizza box from the joint a block away in her hand. Kara’s face reddened as her lips separated abruptly from Mon-El’s and exclaimed, “Oh Rao! I’m so sorry! Totally forgot that it was Sister Night today!”

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I listen to a lot of music, that’s probably because I play the piano, so then lightbulb moment, and got the inspiration for this. You might need to google some of the musical terms, I got carried away. Songs are below.
> 
> 1st High School Scene - 2005/06 ish, [Five for Fighting - Superman](https://youtu.be/GRz4FY0ZcwI)  
> 1st Game Night with Winn - 2013/14 ish, [Star Wars Episode 2 - Across the Stars](https://youtu.be/v6O3FqCZJq4)  
> CatCo Christmas Dinner - 2015 December (duh!), [Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu](https://youtu.be/tvm2ZsRv3C8)  
> Evening with Mon-El - Sometime after Supergirl S2E13, [A Thousand Years, Glee Version](https://youtu.be/Dg4cg3ki6ks)
> 
> Also, for fun, on an entire unrelated note, I have just discovered that Miley Cyrus has a song called [Supergirl](https://youtu.be/SAJrO-S-O-Y). Here's the link.


End file.
